Vagabond Hearts: True
by Arkade4D
Summary: A new beginning for the Vaganbond Hearts saga, telling of Hex Nightwise's quest to restore the Elemental Hearts and save the Kingdoms from a powerful True Heartless known as Chaos.
1. Chapter One: The Lifebeat

Vagabond Hearts: True  
Well, I'm back! What follows is what should have come first, the true incarnation of Vagabond Hearts. Of course, neither the Kingdom Hearts mythos nor any of its characters are my property, and I don't make any claims they are. I don't make any money, either, so I'm pretty sure I can't be sued. Hey, 8-Bit Theater gets away with it, why can't we?  
  
Chapter One:  
  
Hex Nightwise stood leaning on the railing of the balcony overlooking the dance floor. He stood staring up into the skylight, watching the lights of the club dance over the rain pounding against the glass. The pounding rhythm of the music drowned out the sound of the rain and thunder, though neither the music nor the lights could hide the lightning. Every now and then, it highlighted the towering buildings of Neon, the city of magical technology.  
Below him danced a legion of teenagers, the protectors of this city. Long ago, the founders of the city had set only three laws to govern the city. The first was that all people should live lives of honor, and allow others to do the same. The second was that all people should be free to do as they please, as long as they did not strip freedom or honor from themselves or others through their actions. The third law was that there would be no more laws.  
Naturally, the city quickly fell into anarchy and hedonism.  
In response to this, the Clans were formed. They protected the freedom and honor of others to further their own honor and fame. Over time, colleges were formed to train those who would be Clan members, and many of the best and the brightest of new Clan members - teenage protectors of a city on the edge, a city of paradox - spent their down time here, in the Lifebeat dance club.  
Hex himself had been a Clan fighter for a little over a year, now. He belonged to the Orphans, a Clan of only three members, including himself, but one of the most celebrated in the city. His fellow Clan members, Crystal and Damon, danced below him, but he never joined them. Hex was quite the jack of all trades - knowledgeable, dedicated, and capable. But he was not a dancer.  
Hex looked down onto the dance floor to locate his friends. It was not hard. As usual, Crystal had attracted quite the crowd of onlookers, and Damon was by her side. Hex watched Crystal Bluewolf with a sort of envy. She moved with an almost supernatural grace in a tight, midnight blue dress hemmed in silver. It was a long dress, but the slits running down both sides allowed full range of movement in and out of combat situations. The dress's blouse was cut over her breast in an intricate, half-snowflake pattern, and the sleeves were long, but open along the sides, coming together at the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. Her skin was a deep tan, tinted in blue and silver that one could only see when the light hit her just right. Her silver-blue hair was tied up out of her face, but Hex wished she would wear it down - he preferred it that way, though it often frizzed out when she did. As she circled within the crowd, all eyes were on her, and Hex again felt that sense of loss that came to him so often since they had broken off their romantic relationship.  
Damon Bayne danced with her, but outside of the crowd's gaze. Crystal was quite exotic, and Hex, with his amazing blue eyes and the occasional sparks of electricity that danced across his skin, sported a bit of the exotic, as well. Damon, however, was less exotic then he was unsettling. He looked normal enough from a distance, but when one looked into his eyes, they were confronted with pools of deep blood red, eyes as unsettling as the cries of the wounded on the battlefield. He wore an outfit almost identical to Hex's - a club shirt and simple jeans in black, and a gray shirt underneath. All were decorated in various tribal pattern, blood red and resembling flames. The tribal markings on the back of the club shirt formed a pair of demonic-looking wings, chosen by Damon to further the outcast image he had come to accept since Hex and Crystal had begun their romance, and kept even after they broke up.  
It was this eerie quality and the fact that he willingly accepted his outcast status, now, that caused many of the crowd of dancers to avert their gaze from him. Hex, Crystal, and Damon were very truly Orphans, children sent to this Kingdom from another one, somewhere in the starry night sky. Why they had been sent here, no one really knew. But they had grown up here, raised by the Clan colleges, and all the Clan members in the club knew them fairly well, had grown up with them. All his life, Damon had suffered from the people around him looking away. Hex and Crystal had been his only friends growing up, and this was exactly why Hex now stood above, looking at Crystal with envious desire instead of dancing with her. Crystal had broken up with him when their relationship had begun to drive a wedge between him and Damon. It was an effort that came too late, of course. There was jealousy and anger there, now, boiling beneath the surface of a friendship that now possibly lasted only because it always had been there. And Hex knew it. He simply did not like, or even really trust, Damon anymore.  
He couldn't really explain where the distrust came from, though. The anger made sense, but not the distrust. Damon had never acted on his feelings for Crystal in any physical way; Crystal had told Hex so, and Hex believed her. But, for some time now, maybe years, Hex had had the feeling that some distant Kingdom, or maybe many, had been irrevocably altered by Damon's actions. Of course, this was nonsense. Since coming to Neon, Hex and his friends had never left the Kingdom - they had no way to do so. But, still...Hex couldn't shake the feeling that Damon had done something very wrong, even evil.  
Hex didn't know it, but Damon felt some hidden feeling very similar to Hex's own. Damon felt betrayed and defeated by Hex, but the feeling seemed to stretch beyond Hex's relationship with Crystal. Damon himself felt like he and Hex had fought a terrible battle on some distant Kingdom, and Hex had ultimately won a battle he should never have started.  
Both explained the strange feelings away as nonsense. But neither could shake the feeling, no matter how hard they tried. And neither told Crystal how they felt.  
The song ended, and the crowd applauded Crystal, shaking Hex from his reverie. He smiled and clapped, as well, as Crystal and Damon looked up at him. They exchanged words, and Damon went towards the bar as Crystal began to climb up the stairs to the balcony. A new song began, quieter then the last, and the sound of thunder could now be heard outside.  
"Strange weather, isn't it?" Crystal said as she sat down with Hex.  
Hex nodded. "It does give me an uneasy feeling..." Neon was a very rainy city, but thunder and lightning were very, very rare. And they never showed up unless something very, very bad was about to happen. And the Orphans weren't the only ones to think so. Nearby, a massive fighter named Manos laughed nervously with his fellow Clan member, Mac. Hex could here them joking about the bad omen raging in the sky above them. They mentioned how odd it was that simply so many Clans had gathered here, tonight. Hex seemed to agree, feeling that this would surely attract misfortune to the Lifebeat.  
Damon arrived at the table with drinks, and sat down quietly. "Don't let me interrupt the silence," he joked. Hex and Crystal looked at him for a moment, until he sighed and looked up into the skylight. "Yeah, I think we all feel it..."  
It was a terrible feeling, too. It seemed like it had been raining non-stop for weeks, now. That in and of itself was not too unusual, but every time the clouds broke apart, it seemed there were fewer stars in the sky. At first, only the city astronomers and Clan mages had noticed, as the clouds broke to reveal one or two stars missing at a time. But then, even spellslingers like Hex, often considered the most dense and spontaneous Clan members around, started looking up to notice whole constellations missing.  
The mages and fighters of Neon were very knowledgeable, very advanced. They knew what the stars in the night sky were: other Kingdoms, worlds with peoples and histories all their own. And here the stars were, vanishing at a rapidly increasing rate. The people of Neon knew what this meant - that the Kingdoms were being completely destroyed, the Hearts of the Kingdoms were being swallowed by some unknown enemy. And the people of Neon knew they should be nervous about this, as well. They knew that the Kingdoms were separate, existed apart from each other. But they also knew the Kingdoms shared something: one sky.  
One sky, one destiny.  
Neon was in trouble, and tonight would be the night its final fate would be set in motion. No Clan member was prepared to be left out of what very may be their final battle. Of course, no Clan knew for certain this last part. They knew it only as an itch, a tingle in the back of their collective heads, a buzz. A sixth sense. Something was coming.  
But, until it came, the teenage magi and warriors, the young monks and impulsive spellslingers enjoyed themselves. They danced, and drank, and laughed. They enjoyed themselves, not really believing or accepting that their final fates were at hand, but enjoying themselves as best they could, just in case.  
This was pretty much the attitude held by the newest generation of Clan members: Be heroes, have fun, and be ready to die.  
Of course, none of them could even begin to suspect that it was not death bearing down on their Kingdom. It was darkness, pure and untainted. It was Chaos. And it came at the head of a massive force of the creatures known as the Heartless.  
  
********  
  
The night wore on, until the tension was so much that none of the Clan members could even bring themselves to dance. In fact, the band even stopped playing at one point, almost as an experiment. When no one noticed, they simply left. They were a band, not a Clan. They wanted no part of whatever was coming.  
As midnight came and went, much of the crowd began an uneasy journey to their homes. By one in the morning, only a handful of the Clans were left. Many of them had gone home, too. Finally, Hex himself was all set to leave, ready to explain the feeling away as simply a feeling, like his uneasiness with Damon. As he and his friends stood to leave, a massive explosion stopped them.  
As one, all eyes turned to the stage. An incredible, black flame had manifested there. Above the stage, flames danced in the air, suspended in nothing. As they watched, the flames in the air formed a symbol, a symbol completely alien to the young warriors gathered to confront the coming darkness. It was a great heart, its bottom point tapering to a three- pointed ornament, like a spear tip. The heart itself was empty, save for an "X" drawn through its center, flames dancing along it in a truly foreboding way.  
"It's...it's amazing," Damon said breathlessly. The other Clan members gathered nearby looked at him uneasily and shifted, and Hex glared at Damon.  
"Yeah," Hex said sarcastically. "Amazing in that, 'It's a sign of the Kingdom's doom' sort of way." He shook his head and looked back at the symbol.  
Nothing happened for a few moments, until another member of Mac's Clan, a ninja named Cloak (Hex always thought the name was a bit unoriginal), approached the black flames on the stage.  
As he stepped up to symbol, it flared outwards almost to the balcony. Next to Hex, Cloak's brother Manos yelled out. The flames spread all over the floor. They didn't burn, they didn't even feel hot. Hex noted, though, that they didn't feel cold, either. They simply...didn't feel like anything at all.  
"Cloak!" Manos yelled again. "Cloak, are you all right?"  
"Talk to us Cloak!" Mac yelled down.  
Hex looked over the railing, ignoring the black flames all around him. Cloak did not say anything back, but he did stir a little. "Come on," Hex yelled down. "Get up, Cloak!"  
"He can't, he's been wounded," Crystal said. She looked at Hex, and he nodded to her. With a whirlwind action, she put on her cloak, midnight blue to match her dress, with lighter blue tribal markings forming snowflakes and angelic wings, in keeping with the Orphan's uniform. She then leapt down off the balcony, and began casting a Cure spell.  
"Let's go," Manos said to Mac. Mac nodded and, with their more silent partner, Dragn, they headed down to the dance floor. Damon followed, but Hex remained above. He didn't understand what was going on, why nothing was actually happening.  
"Thank you, Crystal," Hex heard Manos say below. She muttered something in return, but she was no longer paying attention to him or Cloak. As Manos and Dragn helped Cloak away from the dance floor, Crystal stood. Hex followed her gaze, and saw that Damon was standing on the stage, in the spot where Cloak had been when the symbol flared. Hex wasn't sure what Damon was doing, and yelled out a warning.  
"Damon, get back, man!" he exclaimed.  
Damon ignored Hex. He stood on the stage for a moment, staring into the symbol. As the crowd of Clans watched, more flames spread from the symbol around Damon. But Damon did not move. The black flames gathered around him, and he simply stared at them, watching them in wonder. Those feelings of uneasiness about Damon and the situation grew to a fevered pitch in Hex's mind, spread throughout his being in an instant. He knew this was it, that whatever was coming was coming now. He knew that Crystal was down there, that she would be threatened by whatever was about to appear. And Hex knew that Damon would not help her, though he didn't understand why.  
"Everyone!" Hex yelled, trying to hide the rising pitch of panic in his voice. "Your weapons, now!"  
As the sounds of swords being unsheathed and chants beginning filled the room, Hex himself drew Honor and Freedom, his spellhands - gauntlets designed to unleash bursts of elemental spell energy, named after the two highest ideals of the city. There was a reason Hex commanded such authority, even over other Clans. Many Clans were simply in the business for the rewards, they had lost the true spirit of protecting the innocents of Neon. But Hex was not like that, Hex fought for the ideals the Clans were formed for.  
No one could deny that Hex had the stuff to be a hero.  
Again, however, a stillness settled over the Lifebeat. The only movement was Damon, staring around him into the black flames in wonder. The chants trailed off, and the gathered fighters drew a collective breath. For only a moment, the crowd let its guard down. And in that moment, the world exploded.  
All around him, Hex saw the black flames forming into impish creatures of pure shadow. They were completely alien, and as their numbers rapidly expanded, Hex felt a sort of despair grow unbidden in his heart.  
Yells rose from the crowd as the battle was joined. There were too many people around, Hex couldn't get a good bead on any of the creatures attacking them. Forgetting the fear and despair with the effortless single- mindedness he had been trained to hold in battle, Hex leapt up on his table. He had a few feet above the crowd, now, but the creatures were only a couple feet tall themselves. Hex threw a couple of Aero bursts, but his heavy-hitter Thunder bursts were useless in this crowd. He began leaping from table to table, throwing bursts at what appeared to be random, though every one of his shots found its target.  
As the number of creatures shrank, more of the flames formed into similar imps, though these ones had wings. Almost as soon as it had formed, the one nearest Hex launched itself at him. He flipped backwards onto the railing, throwing two more bursts. In his haste, he missed, though the Aero bursts he threw did manage to knock the creature off course. It shot past him, nearly knocking him off balance. He teetered on the railing, and when he managed to catch his balance, he looked around.  
Everywhere in the club, Clan warriors were falling to these creatures. But as Hex watched, he saw that those who fell weren't actually being killed. Some strange light escaped their chests, shaped like a heart. And then, the body became another one of the creatures. But many were different then the ones that had come from the flames. When stronger spell casters and warriors fell, they became stronger creatures, definitely of the same nature, but visibly more powerful. Hex realized that they were multiplying by stealing the hearts of the fallen.  
The sudden realization stunned Hex, and he was unable to react to the flying creature's return. It raked him with its claws, but there was no pain. Instead, that despair he had felt when the symbol had first appeared seemed to spread through the wound like a poison. In a flash, he realized what was happening: the despair was meant to take his heart.  
"Everyone!" he yelled out. "Everyone, stay focused! Believe you can get through this! They are after your hearts, but they can only take them if you give them up!"  
Those Clan members still standing all looked at Hex, acknowledging him in various ways. Hex smiled, and he could feel the despair reaching towards his heart recede. Of course, now the wound began to hurt. He needed a Cure spell, where was..?  
"Crystal!" Hex yelled over the dance floor below. She didn't answer at first, and it took Hex a moment to locate her.  
She was surrounded by the shadowy monsters, but was holding them at bay with calculated swings of her sword. The katana glinted in the multi- colored light of the Lifebeat, reflecting the light like a diamond. The blade of the sword was covered in ice, a trick Crystal often used in battle.  
When the creatures backed off for a moment, Crystal looked up at Hex and smiled. Hex smiled back, satisfied that she was alright, and began to turn back to his own battle when a flash of steel caught his eye. He saw one of the winged creatures diving on Crystal, holding a dagger it had picked up.  
Hex let out a warning cry, but it was too late - Crystal was not able to react to the attacker in time. It stabbed her and flew upwards again, and the creatures surrounding her leapt at her in a single wave.  
Rage drowned the pain of the trio of slashes running down Hex's chest. With a fierce battle cry, Hex leapt into the air. More of the flying creatures flew at him, but he scattered them with a well-placed Thunder burst. In the open air here, there was no fellow warrior to hit.  
Hex hit the ground with a roll, and came up still firing in the center of the shadowy mass. He didn't bother aiming, at this distance he was bound to hit something, regardless. It was a scare tactic, meant to hold off the creatures until he could reach Crystal.  
Hex managed to find her, but she was unconscious. The creatures surged all around him, and for a brief moment, it seemed to him that he might be overcome. This moment of despair was just what the creatures needed, and the began racking at Hex and Crystal.  
With no warning but a roar, Manos charged into the mass, barely missing Hex and Crystal, as the two lay prone on the ground. Dragn and Mac were behind him, battling the creatures with a determination Hex had never seen before.  
"Come on, Hex!" Mac shouted. "Don't give up! Like you said, they can't beat you unless you give up!"  
Hex knelt over Crystal as Mac and his Clanmates held back the shadow beasts. Like himself, she was covered in shallow cuts. The knife wound that had taken her down was deep, and Hex feared the worst, until she stirred slightly in his arms.  
"I need to get her under the balcony!" Hex shouted. There was no verbal response from the warriors around him, but they immediately began carving him a path in that direction. He walked backwards with her on his shoulder as Manos, Dragn, and Mac surged all around him. Not one of them had fallen yet, and they were tearing through the creatures with amazing ability. Hex pulled Crystal to safety, and then Mac was by his side.  
"Where's Damon, why isn't he with Crystal?" Hex asked Mac.  
"Still on stage..." Mac muttered through clenched teeth, his Holy- enhanced sword slicing through a duo of the shadow creatures.  
Hex looked up at the stage, and Damon was indeed still there. He was surrounded by the black flames still, and seemed totally enthralled by them. Hex was furious; Crystal lay wounded, possibly dying, and Damon did nothing to help her.  
Hex turned his back on the stage in time to Aero another of the creatures, this one in armor. When he looked back at her, he saw her eyes were open. She was conscious again. "You all right?" he asked her breathlessly.  
Crystal nodded. "I heard what you said, but it's not as easy as you seem to think..."she laughed lightly.  
Hex smiled. Crystal was going to be alright. "Can't cast your own Cure spell, huh?" he asked her with a chuckle of his own.  
Crystal shook her head, and Hex could in fact see that her right arm, her sword arm, was badly injured by the knife wound. He turned over his shoulder, suddenly remembering that Mac's Clan had a healer. "Hey, Mac!" Hex called. "Where's Flair?"  
Mac tripped an attacker, and shrugged as Manos finished it off with a single punch. "She was...um...in the bathroom when things started," he said, a little sheepishly.  
"We all knew that certain doom was at hand," Hex said, "and she couldn't hold it?"  
Mac shrugged again, and returned to the battle. In a moment, another young woman appeared at Hex's shoulder.  
"Sorry, sorry!" Flair said. "I got here as quick as I could."  
"Yeah, well, you're boyfriend got wounded while you were taking a leak," Hex said with bitterness that was half mocking, half real. "Crystal helped him out, so I think you owe her one, yeah?"  
Flair smiled and nodded, and cast her Cure spell on Crystal. As the healing light faded, Crystal stood. "Where's Damon?" she asked.  
"Still on stage," Hex answered angrily. Flair cast another Cure spell on Hex, and as the light faded again, the wounds on Hex's chest closed. He smiled at Crystal, only to see her raise her hand and unleash a magical blast of ice. The freezing shards flew all around Hex, and he did his best not to so much as twitch. As the spell passed him, he whirled around to see the knife-wielding flyer hit the ground and fade away, its shadow-stuff mixing with the mist of Crystal's Blizzard spell.  
"Eyes, open, Hex. Can't be there to protect you all the time," Crystal said with a smile. She looked to the stage, and then back to Hex. "What the hell is Damon doing?"  
"Let's ask him," Hex said. "Mac, cover us!"  
The creatures were still swarming, now pouring from the symbol, a great wave surging around Damon and into the battle. Hex and Crystal couldn't possibly take them all, but Mac's Clan was willing to help, and even Cloak got back into the fight. The seven fighters worked their way to the stage as quickly as they could, and Mac's Clan held the shadows at bay while Crystal and Hex confronted Damon.  
"What the hell are you doing, man?" Hex snapped angrily. Damon did not answer, though. He simply stared at Hex, and it took a moment for Hex to realize that the same symbol that burned in the air above the stage burned black in Damon's blood red eyes.  
Crystal noticed it, as well. "Damon, what is the matter? What is this?" she demanded.  
Damon said simply, "They are the Heartless." He never looked away from the symbol.  
Angrily, Hex looked at it as well. "Are you expecting something else?" he asked. But before Damon even had a chance to answer, even though Hex hadn't expected an answer, that something else appeared.  
A massive new creature, one of these Heartless, burst from the symbol. It was large, much larger then any of the others, and was very clearly their leader. It was very draconic, a dragon made entirely of shadows.  
"The Shadow Dragon..." Damon said, and then, all at once, returned to his senses. He looked at Hex, and the symbol burning in his eyes had faded. "Hex, we need to stop that one."  
"Man," Hex smiled. "We need to stop them all, but thanks for joining the show."  
Crystal and Damon drew their swords, and the three Orphans stood together on the stage. They looked up at the Shadow Dragon, hovering above the dance floor, for a moment, and then Crystal and Damon looked at Hex. He looked at each of them with a smile, and then gazed back at the Shadow Dragon. "Hey, big guy!" Hex yelled.  
The Dragon ignored him, focusing on the battle on the balcony. Hex, however, was fairly certain the Dragon could understand him. "I said," Hex yelled, "Hey, big guy!"  
The Dragon lolled its head toward the trio with what truly struck Hex as exaggerated lack of interest. "Silence, little one," it growled. "Succumb to my Heartless, and give me the Heart of Balance."  
Crystal was a bit of a sage, and Hex looked at her for an explanation. She shook her head, and Hex looked back at the Dragon. "Sorry, lizard," Hex laughed. "Not sure what you mean. But how's about you float on down here and tell us what it is, and then maybe we can kill you." As Hex said this, electricity crackled from his eyes and down his arms, and a sudden wind blew up around him.  
The Dragon growled, but the sneer seemed to turn into a mockery of a smile. "Very well," the Dragon said, and dove at Hex.  
Hex smiled calmly, and prepared for the Shadow Dragon's charge. But before he could throw any spells, Damon leapt into the line of fire.  
"Damon!" Hex cried. "What are you doing?"  
"I want this one!" Damon replied. But before he could strike the Dragon, he was in its claws. The Dragon let out a fierce roar as Crystal cried out in fear, but in a flash, Damon's sword was deep in the Dragon's throat.  
"Nice shot, Damon!" Hex yelled upwards. The Dragon reeled, and headed back at the symbol. It released Damon, but to everyone's surprise, Damon held onto the Dragon's claw. It flew back through the symbol with Damon.  
"What the hell is he doing, now?" Crystal asked. She and Hex looked around the club, and saw that only a handful of the Heartless remained. Unfortunately, the Clans had been decimated, as well. In fact, only Mac's Clan remained whole. Every other Clan had lost one or more members. But it appeared to Hex that the feelings of impending doom they had all carried had been a bit exaggerated.  
"I hope Damon's alright," Hex said, following Crystal's gaze into the symbol. It had not yet faded, but there was nothing but the back wall of the stage beyond it. As the last of the Heartless were slain, their bodies fading into nothing, all eyes turned to the symbol again. The black flames died down, only the symbol remained, and the stillness settled over the club again.  
The Lifebeat remained silent and still for what seemed an eternity, but no one was willing to turn away from the symbol, for fear of what may come next. They were steeled, one and all, prepared for whatever might come.  
Of course, none of them were prepared for what came. A shadowy figure, a humanoid shape, formed in the symbol. After a moment, it blinked, and Damon stepped from whatever lay beyond. He was different now, though, both physically and mentally. His skin was paler, his clothes were accented with a single symbol like the one burning above the stage, and he had dark, draconic wings.  
But Hex could sense a further change, and a glance at Crystal showed him she noticed it, too. Moments had passed for them, but clearly Damon had experienced much more time. He had changed, and embraced whatever darkness the Dragon had swept him into.  
"Damon," Hex said quietly. "What did you do?"  
"You did this, Hex," Damon said. "You did this, and you failed to stop the Heartless. Look into the sky, at the stars as they fall. That is your fault, yours and those...Returners."  
Hex looked up through the skylight. The clouds had broken, and Hex could indeed see stars falling from the sky. "The Heartless are taking them all," Damon said, "Because you weren't strong enough to stop them. You refused the power that could have ended all this before it began. But don't worry. Another begins his journey this night, sets out to do what you failed at doing. He will shine the light of Kingdom Hearts upon everything, and when he does, I shall see to it that Chaos is what all things become!"  
"Damon, what are you talking about?" Crystal cried. "How can you know all this?"  
Damon looked at her, his eyes burning with blood red flame. "Because Hex told me, in a wasted attempt to prevent the future to come." Damon stepped toward Crystal, holding out his hand. "I am no longer Damon, Crystal. I am Chaos, I am a true Heartless, not one of those artificial abominations that strip the stars from the sky. I would let the Kingdoms remain, forged in my image, in the image of Chaos. But I can protect you, Crystal. Just take my hand."  
Crystal looked at Damon with a complete sense of hopelessness. Her arm moved slightly, but before she could do anything, Hex stepped between them.  
"Not a chance in hell, Damon," he growled, Honor and Freedom leveled at the spot between Damon's eyes.  
Damon glared. "I am no longer Damon. I possess the Heart of Chaos. When the light of Kingdom Hearts shines down on the Kingdoms, the Heart of Destiny will have to make a choice. Somewhere in this Kingdom lies the Heart of Balance. I will take it, destroy it, and Destiny will have no other choice then me. I am Chaos. And she, and all Kingdoms, will be mine forever!"  
Hex did not respond verbally. He simply, calmly, launched twin Thunder bursts at Damon's face.  
What happened next was a blur. Damon produced a strange weapon, a large sword that looked a bit like a key. The spellshots were knocked away, shattering the skylight above them. As glass rained down on the dance floor, a portal of pure darkness opened up beneath Hex's feet. Darkness spread all around the Lifebeat, swallowing everything. Hex sank quickly into the puddle beneath his feet. Crystal let out a cry, and reached for Hex, but Damon grabbed her and took to the sky outside. Hex reached upwards, trying to grab something, anything to hold onto.  
But there was nothing, nothing to hold onto. And nothing on the other side. 


	2. Chapter Two: Strange Awakenings

Vagabond Hearts: True  
Looking over my notes and overviews of the series, I've decided that, in addition to the usual denial of ownership of the Kingdom Hearts mythos or its characters, I should also point out that I don't own any of the Final Fantasy mythos (mythi?) or their characters.  
Also, before you ask, yes: all these time-traveling remarks have a point, one that will be revealed fully later on in the greater story arc. Remember, this story is currently planned as a trilogy, and there may be more books after that. But it's the second one that involves Hex's trip into the past, as mentioned in my profile.  
That said, enjoy chapter two of Vagabond Hearts: True.  
  
Chapter Two:  
  
There was nothing. Nothing but the darkness. All around him, Hex saw, heard, felt nothing but darkness. He knew he was falling, though he wasn't sure how he knew. He couldn't actually tell, and he didn't feel like he was falling. There was just a desperate, sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, the only thing that assured him he himself was still there in the darkness. After a moment, or maybe an eternity, he realized that he was trying to scream. But there was no sound, and the darkness simply seemed to overtake him the more he tried. Finally, he gave up, he shut his mouth and eyes, ignored the feeling in the pit of his stomach, and Hex Nightwise let the darkness take him where it would.  
  
********  
  
Hex shot up with a jolt and a yell, taking a wild swing at the thing bent over him. He wouldn't go down, he wouldn't be devoured by some beast. He lashed out madly, hitting nothing but not stopping, not seeing his target but feeling it was there, until finally he tracked it down but its frightened protests. He hit straight on, and it let out a light, almost feminine yell.  
He quit swinging for a moment, and realized that the reason he couldn't see his target wasn't because he was still lost in that darkness, but simply because his eyes were shut. He opened them and took a mad look around, until his eyes fell upon a pale, dark-haired girl not much younger then himself, nursing a reddened cheek.  
"Oh! Oh, crap, I am so sorry!" Hex said hastily.  
The girl didn't answer, she only shook her head. When she looked up at him, Hex saw that her tear-filled eyes were very unique: her left eye was blue, and her right eye was green. She only looked at him for a moment, still saying nothing, before rising and leaving the room.  
Left alone, Hex took a minute to look around. The room was a bit foggy, or maybe steamy, judging by the pools of some strange liquid scattered haphazardly around the room. He couldn't tell what it was, exactly, his vision seemed to be blurring in and out. He realized that he himself was in a pool of the liquid, but it was comfortably warm, and he didn't want to move. It wasn't thick, or at least didn't feel thick, but its deep shade of green obscured his own submerged body from his vision. He remained in the pool for a few moments, until the girl returned with another young man.  
"I'm glad to see you're awake, Hex," the young man said casually.  
Startled that this stranger knew his name, Hex leapt out of the pool. He was suddenly very nervous about where he was, and who these people were. He stood there for a moment, trying to look threatening despite being naked and unarmed, while the young man and the girl he had hit simply stared at him. The fact that he was friggin' naked suddenly smashed its way into his thought processes, however, and his sudden lunge for the towel set next to his folded clothes made him look less like a trained warrior than a massive spaz.  
He hastily tied the towel around his waist, while the girl suddenly realized she had been staring and looked down. Hex noticed she was blushing, and that didn't help, either. Completely and totally thrown, Hex finally gave up trying to take charge of the situation.  
"Well," he said, "You know my name and you've seen me naked, so I guess my introductions are made. Mind telling me your name?"  
"My name is Locke, Locke Cole," the young man answered. "This is Yuna." The girl looked up briefly, waved, and then looked back at the floor.  
"Well, Locke, Yuna," Hex laughed briefly, "Very awkward to meet you."  
"We've met," Locke said.  
Hex looked at Locke for a moment, then said simply, "That explains why you know my name, I guess."  
"Yeah, you told me," Locke nodded.  
"You also told him you would hit me, and that you would be naked," Yuna suddenly added in a surprisingly clear voice. "But I forgot."  
"Mm, sorry about that punch," Hex said. "Really." Hex then realized that he was actually having a conversation about having had a conversation with someone he had never met, and snapped back to his senses. "Wait, when did I tell you all this?"  
"At the same time you told me to meet you here," Locke answered matter-of-factly. "Just before you and Crono skipped out on the end of Hollow Bastion. But, you were right, we made it out okay, and here we are, waiting for the next step in stopping the Heartless."  
Hex had no response. He simply stared at Locke for a full minute, certain the grey-haired young man with the cocky grin and absurd head band was completely insane. Finally, Hex snapped his jaw shut and shook his head.  
"So, at some point in the past, I told you to meet here to help me stop the Heartless?"  
Locke nodded simply.  
"Despite the fact that I've never met you," Hex continued, "and only just saw a Heartless for the first time?"  
Locke nodded again. This time, however, he also added, "You haven't actually taken the trip into the past yet."  
Again, Hex was struck speechless, standing there with his mouth open in a way he was dimly aware must look very comical. He finally managed to stutter the word, "Oh."  
Locke laughed again. "You also told me that you wouldn't believe a word I was saying, and that you wouldn't really want to know the details yet."  
"Well," Hex said, with a single shake of his head. "Seems I was right."  
"But you do want to know where you are," Yuna chimed in. "And how you got here."  
Hex nodded. "That I do."  
"You are at the Mana Tree, and you yourself never quite understood how you got here," Locke answered.  
"Not exactly the bundle of useful information, am I?" Hex shook his head. "I'm, um, gonna go ahead and get dressed, now."  
Yuna looked up at Hex, and she was blushing again, but she didn't turn away until Hex had looked at her very pointedly for a moment. Finally, he said, "Not like I mind you seeing me naked, I just thought I'd warn you."  
With that, Yuna turned around very abruptly and stared at the wall. Hex noticed, however, that a mirror showing his own reflection was on the wall to her left. Hex glanced at Locke, and Locke shrugged. Hex returned it and simply began dressing. She probably wasn't looking, anyway.  
Hex clothes had been cleaned and mended very well. The grey undershirt he wore beneath his club shirt showed no sign of the wound that winged Heartless had dealt him. He pulled the shirt on first, and Locke politely looked away when Hex dropped his towel and put on his black jeans. He topped it all off with his black club shirt, decorated in electric green tribal designs. The designs were mostly simple borders forming lightning strikes, except for the hawk-like wings on the back. He strapped his armor on over that, heavy shoulder pads and bracers legs. Finally, he fastened his spellhands on.  
"You can look now," he said to Yuna. "Although, since you know so much about me, I think it only fair that you tell me if you were looking." Yuna only looked at him silently for a moment, until Hex nodded towards the mirror. She then resumed her intent study of the floor.  
"So, Locke," Hex said, stepping towards the pair. "I assume I told you why I was here, at least."  
"Yeah," Locke said, still with that half-cocked grin. "To pick up your Keyblade and set out after those Elemental Hearts. Only way to end the threat of Chaos you accidentally created back on Hollow Bastion, I think is what you said."  
Hex was struck dumb and speechless for only the third time in recent memory before finally stuttering the word, "Oh," again.  
  
********  
  
"I was right," Hex said to Locke and Yuna, stepping out of the hollow trunk of the Tree and into the sprawling village built in its branches.  
"Right about what?" Yuna asked.  
"I really don't want the details..." Hex finished. He looked around, all around him. There was an entire village built right here, nestled in multiple levels on three or four branches of the tree. Above, Hex could make out what seemed like a hundred more branches, so thick with leaves that he couldn't see the sky. A similar view obstructed the ground from sight.  
The village itself was swarming with a number of strange creatures, two different species. The first group appeared to be a bunch of white teddy bears. They had large red bulbs hanging off their heads like ornaments, and noses to match. They had small, red wings, as well. The wings didn't appear to be strong enough to allow the creatures to fly, despite the fact that they couldn't have been more then a foot and a half tall, for the most part. However, Hex saw a number of them simply hovering around town, apparently without effort.  
The second group was less remarkable, but Hex found them oddly endearing, being a cat person. These creatures were basically humanoid lions, roughly three feet tall.  
As they walked through the village, Yuna and Locke explained that the white bear creatures were called moogles. The little lions were called moombas. Locke explained that the moombas were native to the Mana Tree, but the moogles had immigrated there. It seemed that moogles were one of very few races, besides humans, who were native to many Kingdoms. When Locke mentioned this, Hex was suddenly reminded of a race of creatures that Crystal had mentioned, creatures named "mogs" that had lived in Neon before humans had built the city. These moogles, however, had all traveled here from other Kingdoms, Kingdoms that had fallen to the Heartless.  
Locke also explained that his own Kingdom had fallen to the Heartless, that it had possibly been the first Kingdom to fall some years before. Hex was a little wierded out by the story, however, since much of it involved him and his failed attempts to save the Bastion, attempts he had not yet made. But he hardly listened to Locke as he spoke, brooding over Crystal now that he had remembered her, wondering where she was.  
Finally, the three arrived at their destination. Built far out on one of the large tree branches, the building didn't strike Hex as part of the village. The construction was different, seemed forced onto the tree where the rest of the buildings seemed very much a part of the tree as a whole.  
"That is the Orphanage," Yuna explained. "It's where I'm staying."  
"You're an orphan?" Hex asked.  
"Yes, just like you," Yuna answered. Something about the way she answered, however, struck Hex as a little odd, like he had capitalized the word "orphan" when he said it.  
"Are there many others?" Hex asked.  
Locke's smile finally flickered for a moment, and when it returned, it was a bit sadder. "Too many others," Locke answered. "Often, when the Heartless take a Kingdom, they take all its people along with it. But there's something about the hearts of children..."  
"Many of them survive the fall of their Kingdoms," Yuna interrupted. "We don't know how, but they seem to gather here, at the Mana Tree."  
"And that's how you ended up here?" Hex asked her.  
"More or less," Yuna said. "Though I didn't grow up where I was born. I have no idea what Kingdom I came from originally."  
"Like me," Hex muttered.  
"So Locke says," Yuna smiled. Hex looked at Locke, but Locke just shrugged.  
"And who runs this place?" Hex asked Yuna. "You?"  
"No, Terra's been caring for the children here since just before my sister and I arrived."  
"She came here with me and the others, like you suggested," Locke added. At this point, Hex was getting used to being told he had done things he hadn't.  
"So, what are we here for?" Hex asked them.  
"Three of the orphans accidentally found the way into a secret chamber in the tree beneath the Orphanage," Locke answered. "They're going to show us where it is, since that's where you're going."  
  
********  
  
Inside the Orphanage, Hex was immediately set under siege. He really liked kids, and it seemed many of them had heard he was coming, so he got plenty of attention. Locke led him deeper into the Orphanage, which was larger then Hex had originally thought, though he decided that much of it must have been hidden by the foliage-sky all around the Tree. Finally, they came to the end of a wide hallway, and stepped into an office-like room.  
"Oh, Hex, hello." The girl who spoke wasn't much older then Hex. She sat cross-legged on the desk, her green hair tied up into a ponytail, her skin glowing lightly purple beneath her red and green clothing.  
"You must be Terra," Hex said, nodding a greeting.  
"And this is my sister, Lulu," Yuna said, pointing towards a girl standing in the corner of the room. The girl wore a black, single piece dress. It was short, ending just above her knees, and had long sleeves that belled out at the openings. The dress had a high neck, and it had a decorative slit in the shape of a cross running from her neck to just below her belly button, and across her breasts. She wore high boots, and her hair was as black as her clothes. Her skin was paler then Yuna's, and her eyes were a deep shade of red, almost like Damon's. Hex didn't see any real physical resemblance between Lulu and Yuna, save that both had a very exotic beauty about them, and was about to say something about when Lulu spoke up.  
"We aren't actually sisters," Lulu said in a calm, even voice. "We just grew up together, and we're from the same Kingdom, originally."  
"I suppose you have a lot of questions," Terra said to Hex.  
"More the a few, yeah," Hex smiled. "But they can wait, it seems we have more important things to worry about. And, judging by the number of kids here, we are running out of time."  
Terra smiled serenely. "You said you'd say that." She looked over Hex's shoulder at the door. "Oh, Relm, did you find them?"  
A young girl of maybe twelve walked into the room, followed by a three-foot-tall mechanical doll. The doll seemed to be modeled after the moogles, though it was larger and more bestial. On its head rode a black and white cat wearing a cape and crown.  
The girl herself wore a red scarf wrapped around her head, and her overalls and waist sash were covered in paints of different colors. Paint brushes stuck out of her pocket, and she carried a large sketch pad on her back.  
"Cait Sith and I couldn't find them," Relm said in an important tone. "But we did find Gau and Nanaki, and they said they knew where to find them, so they should be here soon."  
"So you pawned off the responsibility," Lulu said.  
Relm only smiled guiltily and left the room, Cait Sith in tow.  
"Who are we waiting for?" Hex asked.  
"Three new arrivals, our newest arrivals, actually," Terra said. "They are very spirited and adventurous -"  
"Impulsive and independent, you mean," Lulu interrupted.  
Terra looked annoyed as she answered. "Lulu, it is their spirit that brought them here, rather than allowing them to fall with their Kingdom. Just like you."  
"But I don't have as much of a problem with authority as they do," Lulu returned.  
"They are used to taking orders from Wakka," Yuna said. "And he is very responsible. You just have a crush on him, that's why you're harder on him."  
Lulu looked at Yuna incredulously. "He is fully two years younger then us, Yuna, and -"  
Terra cleared her throat pointedly, then, and all eyes turned towards the door. "Wakka," Terra said cheerfully. "Where are the others?"  
"Waiting at the entrance already, Miss Terra," Wakka answered with an accent.  
"Very well, will you take Hex there, then?"  
"Of course," Wakka said, and turned. Hex followed after him, but turned back after a few steps. Locke and Yuna stayed in the office.  
"Aren't you guys coming?" Hex asked. He didn't know them well, and he didn't know this place well, either. But they knew him, and he seemed to feel more comfortable when they were with him.  
"No, this you do alone," Yuna said.  
"Because -"  
"I know, I know," Hex interrupted Locke's thought. "Because I said so."  
Locke looked at Hex for a moment, and then smiled and nodded.  
"Don't ya worry," Wakka said, thrusting a thumb at his chest. "Ain't nothing in the tunnel me an' my friends can't handle."  
"I'm overwhelmed with faith," Hex said as they continued down the hallway. When Wakka wasn't looking, Hex began mouthing spells to himself.  
  
********  
  
Wakka walked quickly, despite the fact that he dribbled his oddly- shaped ball as he walked. Hex had asked about it, but when Wakka had launched into a detailed explanation of a game called "Blitzball," Hex had stopped him. Wakka was happy to oblige, and thrilled Hex with stories of encounters between his companions, himself, and the Heartless during the final days of his Kingdom, the Destiny Islands.  
This, Hex was happier to listen to, and he found that he truly liked the kid's spirit. As they entered the basement of the Orphanage, however, Wakka's story took a more somber tone. "I just wish I knew what happened to Sora and the others," he finished sadly.  
Hex offered assurance that "Sora and the others" were alright, and told Wakka of his own encounter with the Heartless. Wakka listened intently until they came to the end of a basement hallway, where two other kids were waiting.  
Wakka introduced them as Selphie and Tidus. They stood over a series of broken planks, hastily fit back into the spots in the floor they had been torn from. Looking at the damage, Hex had to ask, "How, exactly, did you find this hidden chamber?"  
"We were, uh, digging for treasure," Tidus answered sheepishly.  
"Oh, promise you won't tell Auntie Terra?" Selphie asked, tugging at Hex's shirt.  
"Of course, I promise I won't," Hex assured them.  
Breathing a collective sigh of relief, the three children excitedly began removing the boards to reveal the opening beneath.  
"Don't ya worry about a thing," Wakka said as Hex climbed into the hole.  
"Yeah, we'll stop any Heartless who come this way," Tidus said.  
Hex looked at the three. Tidus had only a wooden sword, and Selphie seemed armed only with a jump rope. Wakka had no weapon other then his Blitzball. But Hex smiled at each of them. It suddenly dawned on him that these kids were probably about the same age he had been when he had begun his own adventures as a Clan warrior. These three were certainly more childlike, perhaps more innocent, or even naive. But the fact that they could carry such hope in the face of the overwhelming threat of the Heartless gave rise to a surge of hope in Hex's own heart.  
"I'm sure you will," he said, before releasing the edges of the hole and falling into darkness once again. 


	3. Chapter Three: A Meeting

Vagabond Hearts: True  
I'd like to apologize for how long it's taken to get this story posted. I don't have regular access to the internet, and I have been putting heavy effort into some original science-fiction / fantasy epic I've been working on off and on for years, and I've also been jotting down a lot of notes for a card game based on some silly old comics my then-girlfriend (and future girlfriend, if I have my way. And, yes, she is reading this) and I used to draw in our high school psychology class. But, believe me when I say that the only reason this story is taking so long this time around is because I want it to be as awesome as possible for you and her, my fans.  
Anyway, copyright lawyers, take note of my usual denial of ownership over any and all locations and characters related to Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, and anything made by Disney or Square-Enix.  
  
Chapter Three:  
Hex had to feel his way along the inside of the tree branch for a time, as there was no light within the hollow passage. It seemed that he had been walking for an hour or more, and had definitely walked the length of the village above him, before he finally saw an eerie, dim glow ahead of him. He quickened his pace when he saw this, and in moments, came to the place where the branch he was walking in met the tree's actual trunk.  
Aided by the glow, which seemed to come from both below and above him in the trunk, Hex could see that it seemed the entire tree was hollow, or at least riddled with large caverns and passages. He stepped out onto a ledge into the trunk, and peered over the edge. He couldn't really make out any solid features of the tree below him. There seemed to be a massive, glowing lake below. With no idea how high up the tree he actually was, he was left to guess how deep this glowing ocean was. And since he wasn't much of a diver, he decided to leave it at a guess, and head up into the dimmer glow above him. He released a small electrical charge into his spellhands, and used the resulting static to aid his long climb up the side of the tree's inside.  
It didn't actually occur to him to wonder what, exactly, he was looking for.  
  


* * *

  
"Well, he came, just like he said he would," Locke said as he walked onto the bridge of the Star Falcon. He was speaking to a man with long, silvery hair standing in the shadows of the bridge, near the view window in the front.  
"So..?" the man said. He turned to face Locke, his dark trench coat billowing around him, his face still obscured in shadow.  
"So it's the proof you wanted, Setzer," Locke said, not caring to hide his exasperation.  
"Proof of what, Locke?" Setzer asked, stepping from the shadows into the light filtering in through the view window. "Proof of some grand destiny we are a part of? Why would I believe that?"  
"Because it's already begun, Setzer."  
Locke and Setzer turned to the door, where Terra stood. Yuna and Lulu stood behind her, peering over her shoulder into the bridge.  
"It was Hex who warned us that Locke and Celes had discovered the truth," Terra said firmly as she walked towards Setzer. "It was Hex who helped us escape our Kingdom as the Heartless brought it down around our ears, led by the man - "  
Setzer cut her off with a scoff, looking out the window again. But Terra was near him now, and stepped back into his view, her anger shining in her eyes. "Led by the man, " she continued, "who was supposed to protect us."  
"Right, so some guy who claims to be from the future suddenly drops into our laps, with all this knowledge of what is to come," Setzer replied coldly. "He turns our palace on its ears, pits our defenders against each other, claims he's trying to save our Kingdom, and then fails to do so. And he says it's all for destiny?" Setzer tone rose to anger as he spoke. "Well, I don't believe in destiny! I'm a gambler! We don't do destiny. It wasn't destiny that let our friends get taken by the Heartless, and it wasn't destiny that cost us our Kingdom!." Setzer looked away from everyone on the bridge, but Terra noticed the dim, green-tinted sunlight filtering through the window glint off a single tear on Setzer's cheek.  
"It was Hex. He let those things happen."  
Terra looked at Locke, Yuna, and Lulu in turn, but each of them remained silent. She looked back at Setzer, and was silent for a moment, herself. Finally, she said, "Hex lost just as much as we lost in that final battle, Setzer. Only he had to deal with the fact that he had to give it up. He had come from a dark future to prevent it, and was forced instead to accept it. And now, this Hex, he doesn't even know what he's getting himself into." Setzer scoffed again, but Terra continued. She spoke softly, there was no anger in her voice.  
"But he will know. And he will make the choice to return to this future, he will make the choice to let himself experience it, and he will ask us -" she took Setzer's chin in her hand, and turned his face to look at hers. "He will ask us to help him. Yes, Setzer, we all lost something, and we all lost someone, in that battle. But that wasn't Hex's fault."  
"Well, it wasn't destiny, either," Setzer said quietly.  
"No, it wasn't destiny, either," Terra agreed. "It was Magus. It was Chaos. And it was Ansem. It was their fault. But it is destiny that sets Hex's path before him, and it is Hex who chooses to walk it, to do his best to end the threat of the Heartless. And it is destiny that sets us at Hex's side on this path. I will walk it."  
"And so will I," Locke said finally. "And Celes, when Hex wakes her, like he promised he would."  
"But he doesn't even know he made the promise," Setzer said. He looked at Yuna and Lulu, and said, "And what about you two. You used to be three, but your sister was taken from you."  
Yuna lowered her head, but Lulu stepped forward, with only the faintest sign of pain on her face. "We lost a sister to the Heartless, but Hex saved her in the end. We may not know where she is, but we believe Hex will help us find her."  
Yuna stepped forward and nodded, tears running down her own cheeks. "That's right. We will walk with Hex for Paine, and for everyone else who needs our help. Hex will help us find our sister, I believe that, and that is something he didn't promise. But I believe it, anyway."  
Setzer looked at everyone gathered before him. After a moment, he smiled. "You people are making this boy into a messiah, you know that, right?" No one responded, and Setzer shook his head. "And you are doing it based solely on the promise of the man he will become. But promises are easily broken, especially when they have yet to be made." He looked out the window again. The others didn't realize it, but Setzer hated this place, this village and this tree. He couldn't see the sky, the sky he loved so much. But, deep down inside, Setzer's concern wasn't whether or not he would see his sky again, with its thousands of beautiful stars. In truth, Setzer was worried that the sky soon wouldn't be there for the future generations, for the children of the Orphanage to see again.  
Finally, he looked back at his friends. "Fine, I'm in. If this is destiny, then I have no choice anyway. If it isn't, then I'll follow you on the chance that this boy will become the man we need him to be."  
Locke walked over to Setzer, and clapped him on the back. "Glad to hear it, man. Hex has already gone into the tree to the Shrine of Destiny, and we'll need the Falcon ready when he comes back."  
Setzer looked at Locke for a moment, with his mouth hanging open. "He already went in? He's already chosen to help us?" Locke nodded, and Setzer shook his head. "That guy is something else. How could he make that choice, knowing what his destiny is? What he will have to give up."  
"He told us not to tell him, remember?" Terra said. "So we didn't."  
"So he's doing this as a gamble, with no idea of what he's walking into?"  
"Completely blind, trusting himself to that force of fate you love so much, yourself," Locke said.  
"Wow, he sounds like he really will be my kind of guy..."Setzer said, looking out the window again. This time, however, he smiled.  
  


* * *

  
Panting and sweating, Hex pulled himself up over one final ledge. He had been climbing for what seemed like forever. His arms and back ached, and the static he had charged his spellhands with had long ago given out.  
He knelt on the ledge for a few minutes, struggling to catch his breath, and willing the stiffness and pain out of his body. Finally, with great effort, he lifted his head to look around. To his left and right, he saw that the ledge ran all around the inside of the Mana Tree, though it angled slightly downward to his left. In all, the Mana Tree was at least two miles thick on the inside, and Hex was awestruck by the sheer size of the tree. But he saw nothing on this ledge, just as he had on all the ledges he had pulled himself over before. Absolutely nothing.  
Sighing a sigh that came from the very depths of his being, Hex pushed himself to his feet and looked up for some way up the wall. To his great surprise, however, he saw that he had reached the top of this chamber. There was no more up to climb.  
Hex stood there, his neck craned upward and his mouth hanging open for a good ten minutes, until a little drool running down his chin snapped him out of it. He shook his head and swallowed, and then looked up again. There was nowhere else to go, and no sign of the glow he had climbed up towards in the first place. Completely and totally lost, Hex looked around the tree for anywhere else to go that didn't involve climbing all the way down again. After a moment, he noticed the origin of the glow he had been following.  
It seemed dimmer now, but the glow was definitely coming from a rock nearby. Hex walked towards the rock, resting on another ledge connected to the one he had climbed to by the angled path he had noticed before. Hex came to the rock, and seeing that it was flat and warm to the touch, he decided to sit down. Sitting there, it suddenly dawned on Hex that he could have climbed right past whatever he was looking for. He made a mental note to himself to tell Locke to tell him what to look for, but realized after a moment that it didn't matter. Either he would choose not to tell Locke, or Locke would choose not to tell him...  
Hex shook his head again. He was having trouble with this whole time traveling thing, the idea that he was eventually going to take a trip into the past. It felt like he was working towards some goal, but that his only clues to that goal were the tales of his having already reached it. Hex had always been willing to accept the possibility of destiny, but only because he believed that destiny would only take someone so far. It was left up to the person to choose to walk the path set before them.  
Hex stared into the glowing lake so far below him, thinking this over. Destiny could set the path, he knew that. But it was up to the person to walk it. And here he was, his path set before him, but Hex couldn't help but think that he was already walking it, that he had never been given the choice. If his path had already taken him into the past, which had in turn set his path for him already, did he have any choice in this destiny, at all? Could he choose to turn around now, or was it too late?  
Finally, Hex stood on the rock. The questions had driven the pain and stiffness from his body, and now he looked up at the cavern ceiling above him. "So, what's the deal here?" he asked out loud. "Is my destiny set, or do I still have choices to make? Or are you just banking on the idea that I'll make the right choices, and walk this path on my own, after all?"  
"A lot of people are counting on me. Locke and the others made that clear. But, if I already saved them once, does that mean destiny will see me through all these coming challenges I have to face?"  
Another thought suddenly struck him, one far deeper then the question of whether or not he could still turn around. He looked down at the lake below him, and asked quietly, "Can I die?"  
"Destiny only takes a person so far, the person must choose to walk the path. So, whatever you are, this power that sets the path before me, you must be taking quite a gamble, hoping I'll make the right decisions, and that I will choose to walk it."  
Hex stepped to the edge of the rock. "Let's see how far you'll go to get me to walk it," he said with a smile, and leapt of the edge.  
Hex fell headfirst past all the ledges he had spent so much time climbing up, and he had time to think what a fitting metaphor it was before he hit the surface of the lake, only to discover that it was actually a very thick fog...  
  


* * *

  
Hex awoke suddenly, and his first reaction was anger at how much time he was spending unconscious, lately. He was on his back, however, and soon saw that he was no longer in the trunk of the Mana Tree.  
All around him, now, was a grey fog and random floating rocks. In the distance above him, he could just make out the form of a great doorway on one of the rocks. It seemed to be the only source of light in this great abyss.  
Hex got to his feet and looked around. He was on a stained glass platform, surrounded by six other platforms rising from the mists and darkness a short distance away. Each of the other platforms seemed to represent an element; fire and water, earth and air, light and dark. The platform Hex himself stood on seemed split into three parts, two halves around a center.  
One half of his platform seemed to depict nothing but chaos: darkness, pain, destruction, and anger. The other side seemed to depict balance: light, pleasure, and creation. In the center was a melding of the two in a magnificent swirling pattern, coalescing into a single green star.  
Compelled by the beauty of it, Hex stepped into the center star. There was a sudden surge of air around him, which split and spread in six directions to the platforms surrounding this one, but nothing else happened. Hex looked around for a moment, not leaving that spot, until he happened to glance behind him and saw something there.  
It stood there patiently enough, a creature almost all black, but with a tan face. It stood about as tall as the shadows Hex had fought before, at the Lifebeat, and that measurement included the creature's massive, rounded ears. Hex at first thought it was a Heartless, though a second look gave the impression that the creature in the red shorts was really more of a humanoid mouse.  
"Hello, Hex," the creature said in a high-pitched, but oddly endearing voice.  
"Um, hello," Hex returned uncertainly.  
"No need to be afraid," the creature continued, stepping forward. "Name's Mickey Mouse, king of the Magic Kingdom."  
"You're a king?"  
"That's right," Mickey said with a chuckle.  
"Well, King Mickey," Hex said with a touch of anger in his voice, "Perhaps you can tell me were I am, and what I'm doing here."  
Mickey took on a more somber tone. "You are standing on the Shrine of Destiny, deep within the Abyss. The door above you leads to Kingdom Hearts, the source of all Kingdoms"  
Hex nodded. That wasn't as clear an answer as he had hoped for.  
"You are here in the Abyss," Mickey continued, "for matters of destiny, as have been a handful of others before you. Not just your destiny, or theirs, but the destiny of all Kingdoms."  
Hex nodded again, but still said nothing.  
"And you got here by taking a flying leap of faith from the top of the Mana Tree," Mickey concluded.  
"Hold it," Hex said, holding up a hand. "That wasn't a leap of faith. That was a leap of distinct non-faith. That was a leap of proof."  
"And what did it prove?" Mickey asked.  
"That my destiny is set in stone," Hex answered defiantly. 'And until I fulfill it, I am not in control of my actions."  
"How do you come to that?" Mickey asked, as innocently as he had the last question.  
"Because I keep falling unconscious, and waking up were I need to be. I don't choose where I end up."  
"No, but you choose to take the actions that bring you there," Mickey said with a smile. "You chose to leap into the mist that brought you here."  
"Yes, but I told you: that was a test," Hex said.  
"Yes, and I'm trying to tell you: you are drawing the wrong conclusions," Mickey returned, still smiling. The "king" was starting to grate on Hex's nerves.  
"So what conclusions should I be drawing?" Hex asked angrily.  
"Let me explain something to you, Hex," Mickey said. He began to circle around Hex as he spoke. "A few years ago, a force of darkness known as the Heartless was unleashed against the Kingdoms. We don't know by who or what; it could have been the sage known as Ansem, or it could have been something else.  
"We do know that all Kingdoms will fall to the Heartless, who are being led by a handful of people and creatures. Something must be done, and I set out to learn what. Though I don't know all the answers, I do know this: that destiny has already set in motion the key to winning this battle against the Heartless.  
"Have you ever heard the saying, 'One sky, one destiny?'" Mickey asked Hex.  
"Yes, it's a saying in my Kingdom, Neon," Hex said.  
"It's a saying in a lot of Kingdoms, and no one knows where it came from. But do you know what it means?"  
"That all things share a common destiny," Hex answered with certainty.  
Mickey nodded. "Exactly. But not all things, and not all people, share a common path to that destiny. Whatever power is behind that door," Mickey pointed at the door to Kingdom Hearts, "seems to have set a number of paths at the feet of a handful of select individuals, destined hero- types like myself, and you.  
"You, however, are a special case. Yours is one of a small number of hearts who's destiny was chosen long ago."  
"But, that right there is what I told you," Hex interrupted. "That I have no choice in my destiny. You said that wasn't true."  
"That's right," Mickey said. "Your destiny is set. But the path you take to reach it is entirely up to you."  
"But the fact that I have already affected the past means that the choice of path has already been set, too!" Hex insisted.  
"Yes," Mickey said with a serene smile. "By you."  
Hex said nothing, he only stared at Mickey. After a moment, Mickey said, "Look into your heart, Hex. You know it's true."  
Hex closed his eyes and thought about it, and he suddenly felt a surge of air around him again. He opened his eyes, and saw that Mickey was no longer beside him. He didn't appear to be anywhere, himself, either. He seemed to be skipping from place to place in a blur of images and faces. Some places and faces he recognized, most he did not. But he knew these people and places for what they were: lost to the Heartless, or else nearly so.  
Suddenly, the faces of Terra and Locke reared up out of the blur, and the faces of Yuna, Lulu, and the other orphans behind them. Hex tried to look away, only to be confronted by the faces of his friends on Neon, Crystal and Damon among them.  
Hex shut his eyes again and cried out, and when he opened them again, he was back at the Shrine of Destiny, with Mickey in front of him.  
"Mickey," he said slowly. "All those faces, they will be lost to the Heartless if I don't do something?"  
"Not just you," Mickey said reassuringly. "Like I said, you are not alone in this battle."  
"Mickey," Hex said again. "Why didn't I see my face?"  
Mickey frowned, and sorrow shone in his eyes. It was truly a saddening sight. "Because you will not be lost to the Heartless."  
Hex did not understand Mickey's sorrow in this answer, but it didn't matter. He didn't matter, it was all those other people who mattered, his friends and those children, all those innocent lives.  
Hex nodded. "What do you need me to do?"  
"The Shadow Dragon attacked this place some years ago, seeking to send all Kingdoms into Chaos," Mickey answered. "When he did so, the eight Elemental Hearts, along with the Heart of Destiny, left this place to hide among the Kingdoms.  
"The Shadow Dragon was a powerful True Heartless, not one of the artificial creatures made in Ansem's machines. He tracked down the Heart of Chaos in Ansem's own Kingdom, during its final days. But a human had taken control of it, and the Shadow Dragon was forced to merge with this human to gain the Heart's power. The Heartless known as Chaos was the result of that merging.  
"Now, Chaos seeks the Elemental Hearts, and the Heart of Balance. He will destroy the Heart of Balance, so that when the six Elemental Hearts are gathered, the Heart of Destiny will be forced to choose Chaos as the path for all Kingdoms."  
"And I have to stop him," Hex said.  
"Yes, with this," Mickey stepped back. Hex held out his hand, and a very unique sword suddenly appeared in it. It was shaped like a key, with a black, bastard sword blade. The teeth were set on the back of the blade, a trio of electric green lightning bolts. Electric green veins ran down the length of the blade to the teeth. Holding it, Hex could feel that the sword was handled more like a short sword, despite its size. The handle was built to allow Hex to wield the weapon with the back of the blade against his forearm, setting the teeth above his shoulder.  
"This is your Keyblade, the Vagabond's Path," Mickey said. "That medallion around your neck..."  
Hex looked down and saw a key-shaped medallion hanging from a chain around his neck. It's handle ended in sharply angled hawk wings, which was where the chain was attached. It was silver in color, but seemed to give off a light reflection of green.  
"...Will take you to the hiding places of the Elemental Hearts," Mickey said. "From there, you will channel the Hearts from their hiding places, into the hearts of the Vagabonds chosen to carry them."  
"How will I know who is meant to carry the Hearts?" Hex asked.  
"Trust that they will be by your side when you need them," Mickey answered.  
"Right, then," Hex said with a firm nod. Without even thinking, Hex swung the sword backward, and it disappeared from his hand suddenly. Hex did not question it, however. "Where to, first?"  
"That choice is up to you."  
Hex thought for a moment. "Guess I better head back to the Mana Tree. The Orphanage will be waiting for me."  
"Good luck, then," Mickey said with a smile, stepping back.  
"You're not coming?" Hex asked.  
"No, my path is different then yours," Mickey answered. "But our destiny is the same. We will meet again."  
Hex nodded as the air surged around him again. He began to close his eyes, when Mickey spoke again.  
"Hex," the mouse said, "You have lost a lot in the battle, more then you realize. And you will have to give up more. Your path will be hard, but do not trust your heroic destiny too much, or lose yourself to it. There is a foe more dangerous then the Heartless on the horizon, and if you give up yourself, you will fall to them. Be careful."  
Hex smiled and nodded, and then closed his eyes.  
There was a rush of air, and then darkness again. 


End file.
